The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1887-05-20

locipede as would be suitable for a reg
ular passenger business over the smooth
asphalt pavements of Washington.
Tho bicycle did not suit. He could not
find room for passengers on a bicycle.
and he wanted q machine with seating
capacity for four .fares." Tho tricy-
Gle did not suit. either. It was good
enough for a young man and his best
gill, or for two young girls. or for an
able-bodiod attendant, or for a store
messenger who had only to carry bas-
kets Of groceries to customers houses,
but it did not answer the purposes of a
common carrier whose object in life
was q vehicle which he would propel
himself and which would seat four citi-
zens beside himself.
Four wheels were found necessary.
and having made this discovery, Nj.
Cherry set to work upon his plans. OF
course he could only steal IN hour now
and then from his regular occupation
to devote to the working out Of his
new invention, and the length of time
which elapsed between the first experi-
ment and the launching of the new
vehicle upon the sea Of passenger
traffic was considerable. And when
you look ut the machine you do not
wonder. It is about half as long as an
ordinary street railroad car, but in
frame it is lighter than any sulky. The
best way to describe the vehicle within
a limited space would probably be to
say that it resembles a car with moth
ing left of it but four wheels and the
platform at each end. The passengers
sit on the platforms, and the locomo.
tive, located somewhere about where
the middle of the ~ used to be, sits
up aloft on a saddle, plunging away at
two levers which turn tho hind wheels.
The steering gear, worked by hand, is
attached to tho wheels in front.
This new hack hardly ever ventures
abroad until the darkness of night has
come to lend its mysterious interest to
all unfamiliar forms. In its headlong
career along streets dimly lighted by a
few distant gas lamps, and late
at night when the common throng has
deserted tho streets and avenues,
the lone wanderer has often been
frightened almost out of his wits by the
sudden appearance and tho sudden and
strange disappearance of this remark
able and wonderful thing, which is
seen only by night. Talk about speed!
When that thing gets fairly under way
it seems to get entirely beyond its own
authors control. Street cars. hansoms,
buggies. they don't belong to the same
class. They are too slow to be thought
of in connection with this machine,
especially going down hill. Even fast
bicylists. mounted on the finest and
most improved roadsters, fall behind
when Cherry's machine comes along.
And the rafting and the shaking! A
ride or this new hack is as lively as it
is rapid. No railroad accident ever
gave a man such a shaking up as he
gets on this machine.
ION a level" said Cherry to a Post
reporter who was riding about town on
1.-THE latest" 81 never have any diff
Guilty in carrying four passengers just
as fast as they care to 60, and / can
take three up the hill at the treasury
building on Fifteenth street quite
easily" But Mr.. Cherry is
thinking about making his passen-
gers walk up hill. His business is
prospecting so that he can dictate terms
now. Yet he rarely charges more than
twenty-five cents a head for the longer
drive. Cherry is afraid that some
other fellow will build another machine
on the same principle and spoil the
business, but in the meantime he has
the good grace to enjoy his prosperous
monopoly with the moderation of a
man who is too really great to become
intoxicated with his own success.
Cherry said last night that already he
had received application from not less
than-a dozen combinations of young
men, each combination wanting to hire
the new machine to carry them up and
down Pennsylvania avenue for a whole
afternoon when the private carriages
of fashion are out. But he does not
approve of the idea. He thinks ii
would interfere with his regular bust
ness, and he finds that he has enough
to do in propelling four passengers all
over town during six or seven hours
after shutdown.